Ladies and gentlemen if there is one thing I hate about writing it is the battle sequences. They are long to write, they are complicated in tone, and are excessively nuanced in every other way.

In short. They are my least favorite thing to write.

But I know that after all of the punishment I put myself through to get to the end of one, I can only hope I have delivered a product that is at least semi interesting to read. And here lies the problem I see with many stories here on the forum:

A lot of the fight scenes are kinda lame.

Now I'm not trying to say you suck, and that I'm awesome. Cause frankly, I think 90% of my own fight scenes are terrible. So you see it's quite the opposite.

I think we all kinda suck.

You see, there are many fight scenes I see here are bland, they are too short, they are ill paced, the tone is off. And it's not a failure on our parts I think, fights are just hard to write. Which is exactly why I've started this topic!

You can think of this as the spiritual successor to Mortal Combat. Because while MC was all sorts of fun, it lacked focus. Which is exactly what I plan to introduce here. Let me explain some.

As Mortal Combat went on I started to see its true potential. I began to use it to test ideas out. Battle theories if you will. Seeing how real people would react to the situations I put them in. A sort of practice ground for my actual writing. This topic's focus will be different. However the idea arose from the same revelation.

We will be using this topic to teach each other how to write a proper battle scene. Obviously one person cant control everything, so this is how it will work. So pay attention.

Firstly! The battles themselves will not be hosted on MR! They will be hosted here instead.

Many of you may know bungie as the company who created the Halo franchise. But important to us, is that they allow members to create private groups, which the members themselves have total control over. The actual fighting will happen in one of these groups. Hopefully, eliminating the problem Hasith had of dealing with such a massive topic during back ups and such. Now, having created a secondary account for this topic, I cannot create a new group for 14 days. However this isn't such an issue as it will give everyone time to get set up. So I suggest you take some time and create an account, and I'll form the group when my time ban is lifted.

In the meantime, here are the rules as they stand right now.

1. All posts must be made in proper novel or script format. Do not write as if you are doing an RP. Write as if you were penning an actual work. You must remain consistent for the most part however, don't switch it up each and every post.

2. Posts may either be in the 3rd or first person. Once again, remain consistent for a while before trying another form.

3. No battle posts are to be posted on Mangaraiders. All battle posts must be posted on bungie.net.

4. A participant must strive at all times to create the best written fight scene possible. Everything counts from word use to grammar. This is a topic to better ourselves after all. Slacking off will get you nowhere fast.

Now you may be wondering: "But Coryn, if we aren't posting the battle here on MR, what is this topic we're in for?"

Well good question young grasshopper. This topic, is reserved exclusively for reviews. Which is why rule 4 is important. Everyone who participates is expected to review and critique the actions of their fellow participants.After all, if you don't know what's wrong, you wont get better. Standard critique rules apply. No flaming! And no worthless reviews! "Good jobs!" are nice to hear, but get us nowhere. Make sure you have something to say. If not, don't say it at all. So rule 6.

6. All participants are expected to critique their peers in helpful ways.

I want to show that Mortal Combat did not die in vain. Prove that something productive can be spawned from our chief distraction! Let's learn to be better writers and kick the crap out of each other while doing it!

I went to see if I could go join in MC once again, but to my major surprise, it turned out to have been ended. T.TSo with this being started up, I am over joyed that my chance to enjoy battle once again is a possibility again. One last thing I would like to say is that the way you ended the MC, Coryn, was the most epic way I've ever seen a thread end.

We'll also be hosting an art based combat. Still stationed on bungie. Rules will happen when the group is created. Until then the gist is that you'll be drawing whole pages of a battle, then submitting it.

Alright guys. we're getting into business. the group is created at least. i'll need to find some more time to properly write up a rules topic and begin the combats. it'll happen later today, but right now i'm busy.

for now on bungie go to your profile, select groups, then search for existing group. the group's name is simply MangaRaiders. you'll see my name as a member/admin or whatever.